Classé Custom Theater series
components offer a beautiful and
purpose-built solution for
installing world-class audio
components in professional
equipment racks. Our commitment
to building the world’s best
amplifiers has not changed, but
the way our customers use them
has. High-end amplifiers today
are as likely as not to be
installed in equipment racks or
custom cabinetry and often serve
as the foundation of a home
theater. Their sheer size,
weight and heat render them
impractical in many
installations.

The revolutionary Custom Theater
(CT) series is our response to
this reality. They are the first
world class high-end amplifiers
specifically tailored to modern
custom installations. They
deliver ultra high-end
performance, exceptional
reliability and are designed to
be easily installed. We say that
they are rack advantaged,
because of a variety of features
tailored to the demanding
requirements of this environment.

CT amplifiers come with their
own adjustable rack rails and a
separate faceplate designed to
conceal all mounting hardware
along the sides of the rack. The
rails adapt easily to common
rack depths while providing
front to back support of the
chassis. Hidden inside, our
unique Intelligent Cooling
Tunnel, or ICTunnel™ (pronounced
Icy Tunnel) architecture and
related circuitry quietly
controls the amplifier
temperature, ensuring optimum
performance and reliability in
enclosed, poorly ventilated
environments.

Conventional high-end amplifiers
use heatsinks with high thermal
mass that rely on convection to
cool the active circuits. They
are slow to heat up and slow to
cool down. Eventually they heat
up their environment and as the
air around them gets hotter,
they become part of the problem.
For this reason, high-powered
amps and racks or cabinets don’t
easily mix.

Conventional heatsinks are
simply shaped pieces of metal,
relying on placement and ambient
air to extract heat from the
amplifier. The ICTunnel™ is more
sophisticated, acting like the
human hypothalamus regulating
body temperature. The ICTunnel™
utilizes an aluminum bonded-fin
heatsink, of the kind used in
high powered medical, laser and
test equipment. It exploits the
principle of low thermal mass,
so it heats quickly but can also
be cooled quickly. Inside its
relatively small size are fins
providing nearly 31 square feet
of surface area. The key to its
operation is how the fins are
spaced—as close as possible to
each other to maximize the
surface area inside the tunnel,
but not so close as to heat each
other. The ICTunnel™ utilizes a
noiseless fan along with
pressure and temperature sensors
to maintain the amplifier’s
target temperature.

The CT series has everything you
would expect from the world’s
best amplifiers. They are
designed for lifetime
reliability. They have the power
to effortlessly control the
lowest impedances imaginable.
They have the finesse to resolve
the infinitely minute details
that are the DNA of great sound.
But CT amplifiers add a new
dimension. For the first time
the world’s best amplifiers can
go right where you need them –
in the home theater rack.